The Deity of The Holy Spirit

Turn to the back of your handout. I want to point out where we are here with this study. We're in week two of pneumatology. Last week, we studied the person of the Holy Spirit. And we said that He's not an impersonal force. He is not strictly power or an effect of God or even an attribute of God. He's not an it, but He's a He. He's a person, right? And we looked in depth about what it means to be a person, how the Holy Spirit is a person. Tonight, we're looking at the deity of the Holy Spirit. Next week, we'll be looking at the names of the Holy Spirit. Michael here is going to be teaching us next week, so we're so looking forward to Michael's teaching. And then the following week, Caleb is going to be teaching us on the symbols of the Holy Spirit. So we have a lot of great material coming up here just over the next couple of weeks.

The deity of the Holy Spirit is something that I don't have to convince you of, I don't think. In other words, you may be thinking to yourself, well, you're preaching to the choir. We get that the Holy Spirit is God. We believe that there's one God and three persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So you may be asking yourselves, do we really need to spend a whole lesson on the deity of the Holy Spirit? Or is David just being a nerd, right?

The answer to both questions is yes. And the reason why we do need to study the deity of the Holy Spirit — I'll give you three good reasons. First of all, the Holy Spirit, as we talked last week, is a personal being. And part of being a person is, remember, we talked about a person is relational, right?

The Holy Spirit wants to relate to us. He wants us to know Him, and He wants us to know Him as He is, and He is God, right? So His very being — that He wants to have a relationship with us, that He wants to witness to our hearts that we're indeed the children of God, that He wants to shed abroad the love of Christ Jesus in our hearts — it's because He's a personal being, and He's God who lives within us. So that's the first reason. He's a personal being, and we want to have a relationship with Him.

The second reason why you want to study the deity of the Holy Spirit is for what we call apologetic reasons. Apologetics is simply being able to defend and explain your faith. You will meet some Christians — quote unquote Christians — who do not believe in the deity of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you've met, for example, some Oneness Pentecostals who don't believe in the Trinity, right? So you need to be able to go, where do I go in the Scripture to show that the Holy Spirit is indeed God? How can I explain that to them? You might meet some of the mainline denominations, the old denominations who came underneath the sway of theological liberalism. We talked last week how Friedrich Schleiermacher in the late 1700s, early 1800s — the German theologian, father of modern liberalism within theology — he denied that the Holy Spirit was a person, and he denied that the Holy Spirit was divine, right? He just said it was an artifact or an effect, so to speak, of God, but it wasn't God Himself. So you need to know for apologetic reasons, right?

And then the third reason why we need to study the deity of the Holy Spirit is because whether you know it or not, you are making disciples, right? And maybe one day it's going to be a child, or maybe it's going to be a brother, or maybe it's going to be a sister, maybe it's going to be a coworker, and they may come to you and say, how do I know that the Holy Spirit's going to empower me? How do I know that the Holy Spirit knows what's in my heart to make intercession for me? How do I know that the Holy Spirit — I can trust Him to convert this person that I'm praying for, that He's going to convict this person of sin, of righteousness and judgment?

Well, it's only because if He's God that He can do these things, right? So we need to know what the Scripture says about the deity of Christ in order to make disciples, in order for apologetic reasons, and also just to simply have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. So let's begin looking at Bible point number one.

A spirit is nothing less than the inmost principle of life. That's the first blank — life. Remember when God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground, and He breathed His breath, ruah, which means spirit, into him, and says man became a living soul, right? That's the inmost principle of life — is spirit. And the spirit of man is man himself. When we talked about anthropology several months back, we said that man has a twofold nature. We have a material nature being our body, and an immaterial nature being our soul, right? And we were designed to possess those in unity.

But my parents, for example, are both in heaven now, and I could take you to where their bodies are interred, and in one sense you could say, well, they're there in the ground, but are they? No, their spirit is in heaven, right? And so the spirit of man is who man is, right? One day their bodies will be resurrected and reunited with their spirits in heaven. What a glorious day that will be. And the spirit of man is man himself, so the spirit of God is truly God. The spirit of God is who God is. He is truly God. When we did the nature and attributes of God in theology proper, one of the first lessons that we did was that God is a spiritual being. He doesn't have a body like us, right? And that's who He is — He's spirit. The Holy Spirit is God Himself, personally present — present as the third blank, in the believer.

God indwells every single Christian via the Holy Spirit. That's the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. He comes to make His abode within us, right? We are His temple and He gives us life, He regenerates us, right? He gives us a new heart and directs and leads us from within, right? His working is both from without and from within in the Christian. Look at John 4:24.

This is Jesus when He is speaking to the Samaritan woman. "God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." This woman was much concerned about the proper way to worship — whether they could worship on Mount Gerizim or whether they had to go to Jerusalem as the Jews said they had to go. And Jesus says, you're worrying about the wrong thing. "God is spirit and those who worship Him worship in spirit and in truth." You can worship God in any place, right?

2 Corinthians 1:21-22. "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God." This is a Trinitarian verse here, 21 and 22. He says, "Now He," speaking of God, "who establishes us with you." He's telling the Corinthian church, those we're united to each other because we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We serve the same God.

"He who established us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God." Anointing is symbolic of pouring out the Spirit on you. And look what he says in verse 22. "Who has also sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." The very moment you place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God quickens you, you're changed. You're no longer a sinful man. Now you are considered righteous in the very eyes of God. And He imparts His Spirit to live within you. And he says here, "Has given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." If you're following along in your own Bibles, does anyone's translation say anything else besides guarantee?

Some translations may say down payment. This is 2 Corinthians 1:22. "Who has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." A pledge. A pledge, yes. Some translations will say as an earnest payment. And the idea behind that is this.

Have you ever bought a house before? Typically what you do is you sign a contract and that contract says that you'll be buying the house, and you put down some — what's called earnest money or good faith money — that shows the seller that you're serious about buying that house. And then you have a certain period normally to inspect the house, not always but usually. And if you decide you don't want the house during that period, you can break the contract and you get your earnest money back. But let's say that you don't follow through and you don't have the house inspected and then the period is over with and you demand your money back — do you have any right to that money? You don't, because that's part of the contractual obligation. You've put that money up, so to speak, as a guarantee.

The Holy Spirit is given to us as a guarantee, as a foretaste of heaven, as a down payment of what Christ is going to do. Because one day Christ is going to return and when He does, He is going to make all things new. He's going to wipe away every tear from our eye. He's going to right every wrong. He's going to punish every evil wicked deed that we think goes unpunished now. It will be punished. No longer will the oppressed be oppressed. No longer will the widow be taken advantage of. No longer will the innocent be trampled on. No longer will the poor be swindled. God will make all things new and set all things right at that time. And the Holy Spirit is given to us now as a foretaste of that. He's given to us now as a pledge from God Himself that He is going to do what He has promised, right? And does God ever break His promises? No — you'd have to rend Himself asunder by losing the Holy Spirit in order to do that. And that's impossible.

So the Holy Spirit is a pledge. It is a promise. It is a guarantee. It is a foretaste. It's a down payment of our future consummation with God in heaven when all things will be made right and we'll be glorified. We'll no longer struggle with sin. We'll no longer struggle with the flesh because again, we will be conformed perfectly to the image of Jesus Christ. And that's the hope of every believer. Every believer has the Holy Spirit living within them. And they are sealed by the Holy Spirit, right? It can't be broken. It can't be taken from me. Flip it around to the back.

Look at 2 Corinthians chapter five, verses one through five. "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent" — speaking of our body — "is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens." We have a home, right? This earth is not our home, so to speak. "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven." So we desire to be with God, to be where He is, to see the face of Christ, right?

Verse three, "If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked, for we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life." These aching bones will ache no more, right? That the struggle in the flesh with sin will be forever dissipated and removed. Verse five, "Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has also given us the Spirit as a guarantee" — as a down payment, as the earnest money of His promise, so to speak. So he's looking forward in hope and he's encouraging the church to set their eyes on heavenly things, to that perfect fellowship with God that we will enjoy one day, and enjoy even now through the Holy Spirit, right?

Ephesians chapter one, verses thirteen and fourteen. "In Him you also trusted" — speaking of Christ — "after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." Because we're sealed by the Holy Spirit, we're forever His.

"Who is the guarantee of our inheritance?" What is our inheritance but God Himself, right? What a beautiful blessing it is that we're co-inheritors with Christ. Christ inherits all things and through Him we are inheriting the Father and the Spirit. "Until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory." So verse 14 says that the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. We've been bought with a price. We've already been redeemed, but one day we're going to be redeemed in full in the sense that our bodies will be redeemed too, right? And we'll be caught up in the glory and what a glorious day that will be. But until then, we have the Holy Spirit as our promise, as our guarantee, and we are sealed by Him. Flip back over to the front.

Application — how is the Holy Spirit our down payment and guarantee? How is the Spirit our down payment and guarantee? Do you know that even now when we meet together, the Holy Spirit is within us, taking the word of God and applying it to your heart? Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that a foretaste of what we're going to be learning in heaven, right? In heaven, we're going to be seeing God in the person of Jesus Christ, the full revelation. Now we walk by faith — then it'll be by sight, right? And we're finite creatures, so we're always going to be learning. Well, even now we have a foretaste of that because of the Holy Spirit.

In heaven, we're going to be singing praises unending — "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty," right? Didn't we sing a little bit earlier tonight? Weren't we making melody in our hearts, right? Speaking to ourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs? That's because of the Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit is the principle of all movement towards God. Every time that your heart is pricked to pray, it's because of the work of the Holy Spirit moving you to God. And one day, you're going to be fully moved to God, right? And what a glorious day that will be.

Bible point number two — the Holy Spirit is spoken of as God in Scripture. That's the first blank — God, and the second blank — Scripture. The Holy Spirit is spoken of as God in Scripture.

One of the best stories of this comes, of course, in Acts chapter five. If you remember, the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the church and daily, God was adding to the church. They were growing and people were becoming converted. And they were meeting house to house, breaking bread in fellowship, rejoicing and worshiping God. And many people were so overjoyed that they were taking their possessions and selling them. And then bringing the proceeds of their possessions to the church and saying, give to the poor, share with the needy, give to those from my bounty, from my wealth. And there was a husband and a wife who sold some property, and when they sold that property, they presented it to the church as if they were giving 100% of the proceeds to the church. But they weren't — they were keeping some back. And that would have been okay. These were freewill gifts; they could have done that, but they were lying. They were misrepresenting. They were appearing to be more charitable than they were. They were more concerned about the pats on the back of men than they were about honoring God. So look what we see in Acts 5:3-4. "But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.'" Here's a direct equivalence of the Holy Spirit being called God. You've lied to the Holy Spirit. You haven't lied to men, you've lied to God.

Flip over to the back. The story continues. "Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last." So he died, because he lied to God. "So great fear came upon all those who heard these things, and the young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him."

"Now it was about three hours later that his wife came in not knowing what had happened. And Peter answered her, 'Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.' She said, 'Yes, for so much.' Then Peter said to her, 'How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out.' Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all those who heard these things." The fear that came upon them was the fear of the Lord, because the Holy Spirit is the Lord.

Flip back over to the front. Application for number two. Do you live in light of the Spirit's omnipresence? Knowing that the Spirit is God, which means that He is everywhere — do you live in that light?

I'm afraid a lot of times we don't, right? If we were always cognizant of it, would we say some of the things that we say? Would we do some of the things that we do? You can never outrun the Holy Spirit. We're going to look at that in just a minute when we look at the attributes of the Holy Spirit. But part of His attributes are His omnipresence — He is everywhere. And His omniscience, His all-knowing, right?

But point number three. In the Old Testament, all — A-L-L — all, that's the first blank, that is said of Yahweh is said of the Spirit, that's the second blank — the Spirit of Yahweh.

So the first blank is all, the second blank is Spirit. Expressions such as "Yahweh said" and "the Spirit said" are constantly interchanged because the Spirit is a divine person. Divine is the third blank. Last week we talked about the Holy Spirit being a person. We're looking at tonight how He's not just a person, but He's a divine person, right? Everywhere in the Old Testament, it'll be interchangeably saying "Yahweh said," and then it'll say "the Spirit of Yahweh said."

Genesis 6:3, and the Lord — this is from the New King James, you'll see the Lord is in all capital letters, which means Yahweh. "And the Lord said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.'" He's saying My Spirit isn't going to strive with men forever. He's equivocating Yahweh and Yahweh's Spirit. Look at Ezekiel 11:5.

"Then the Spirit of Yahweh fell on me and said to me, 'Speak, thus says the Lord.'" So here we have the Spirit of Yahweh saying, "Thus says Yahweh." The Spirit of Yahweh and Yahweh are both God, right? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. "'Thus you have said, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind'" — showing His divine omniscience. That's from the Holy Spirit.

Flip over to the back. 2 Chronicles 20:14-15. "Then the Spirit of the Lord" — or the Spirit of Yahweh — "came upon Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah — a Levite of the sons of Asaph — in the midst of the assembly." So the Spirit of the Lord came upon this individual. Verse 15, "And he said, 'Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem and you King Jehoshaphat, thus says the'" — what? — "the Lord." So here is the Spirit of Yahweh speaking for Yahweh, right? Because again, the Spirit is God. "Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's." So he's telling him, hey, I've got this. This is My battle. And it's the Spirit speaking who is also Yahweh.

2 Chronicles 24:20 — very similar passage, but a different context. "Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the priest who stood above the people and said to them, 'Thus says God.'" So here again, we have the Spirit of Yahweh who is God. "Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord?" — of Yahweh — "so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord" — the Yahweh. "He also has forsaken you."

So here again, we see that the Spirit of Yahweh is interchangeable with Yahweh Himself. Flip back to the front.

For number three, the application is this. Do you hear and obey the voice — the voice of the Spirit? Do you hear and obey the voice of the Spirit? Where do you find the voice of the Spirit chiefly?

God's word — exactly right. Remember, we've thought — never the word without the Spirit, never the Spirit without the word. Now, Romans 8 does tell us that the Spirit bears witness in our heart that we are indeed the children of God.

This is something that we just know as Christians; it's kind of unexplainable, but it's the Holy Spirit telling us you're loved. And you know that as a Christian, when you are regenerated, you know your heart's not the same. You know that there is a presence within you. The whole course of your life has changed and that's the Holy Spirit, right? But we hear His voice. If you want to say, where do I find the words of the Holy Spirit? You find them in the Holy Bible that He inspired, right?

Bible point number four. In the New Testament, the words — that's the first blank — of Yahweh, that's the second blank. Yahweh is Y-A-H-W-E-H, which is typically the way we spell it. In the New Testament, the words of Yahweh in the Old Testament — I have an abbreviated OT there — are quoted as being spoken, that's the third blank, spoken by the Holy Spirit. First blank is words, second blank is Yahweh, third blank is spoken. So in the New Testament, the words of Yahweh in the Old Testament are quoted afresh in the New Testament in the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Look at this here. We begin with 2 Peter 1:21, which tells us the reason behind this. "For prophecy never comes by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." In other words, the Old Testament prophets — they were inspired. And we talked about this when we did bibliology. Remember, we talked about inspiration, how the Holy Spirit moved holy men of old to record divine revelation? That was the Spirit of God doing that. That's why we say this is the Spirit's word, right?

Look in Isaiah 6:8-9. Caleb preached on Isaiah not too long ago in chapter 6. "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying" — and then I've left off a little bit and picked up at verse 9 — "and He said, 'Go, tell this people: Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'" So Yahweh's voice was heard by Isaiah. He says, "I heard His voice." And what did He say? He says, "Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive." He was telling Isaiah that his ministry was not going to be very fruitful.

By divine will, he would be preaching to an obstinate, stubborn people who would not repent. And He's preparing Isaiah beforehand for that. This is the voice of Yahweh. But now look how that is quoted in the New Testament. Acts chapter 28:25-26. "The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, 'Go to this people and say: Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive.'" He's quoting directly the words of Yahweh, but he's putting them in the voice of the Holy Spirit. Because it's letting you know that the Holy Spirit is divine, right? He is the Spirit of Yahweh. Flip back over to the back.

Let me show you another example of this. There are lots of examples, but this is from Jeremiah 31 — the promise of the new covenant. "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord" — says Yahweh. "I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be My people." Now look at the same passage in Jeremiah spoken by Yahweh — the initiation of the new covenant. But now it's in Hebrews, it's in the New Testament.

"But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after He had said before" — He's saying the Holy Spirit said this before in the Old Testament — "'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put My laws into their heart and in their minds I will write them.' Then He adds, 'Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'" So he's taking the same passage in the Old Testament that was spoken by Yahweh and putting it into the voice of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, saying the Holy Spirit spoke it. Because again, the Holy Spirit is divine, right?

Flip back over to the front. The application for number four. Is the Old Testament inspired — inspired, which means God-breathed, from the very voice of God — is it inspired like the New? Yes. All Scripture is God-breathed, right? Remember when Paul wrote that to Timothy, they didn't have the completed New Testament. In fact, Timothy would have mainly had the Old Testament, right? So it's very important that we understand that the Scriptures, whether the Old Testament or the New Testament, they are inspired by the same Holy Spirit, right?

Bible point number five. Ascribed to the Holy Spirit are the works of God. Works is the blank for number five. Everything that God is said to do in Scripture can be applied to the Holy Spirit.

We have creation as an example. We read last week in Genesis 1:2 talking about the very beginning — that God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and the Holy Spirit was hovering or brooding over the deep, right? He was — the picture there is of a hen incubating, right? And bringing order out of chaos. I'm going to read to you Job 33:4. I'm not going to read all these because of time, but I think it's important that we see how, for example, the Holy Spirit is seen as being part of, or active in, the work of creation. Job 33:4, "The Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life."

Who made the writer here? The Holy Spirit did. "The Spirit of God has made me. The breath of the Almighty gives me life." The very fact that you have breath in your lungs is due to the Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit is active in preservation. When we did theology proper — the second part of theology proper — we talked about the works of God, we talked about creation, we also talked about preservation. Not only does God make the universe, but He holds it together, right? He keeps it from disintegration and from chaos and from disorder. Apart from Him doing that, nothing would be, right? He holds this world in existence. And let me read to you from Psalm 104.

"These all wait for You, that You may give them food in due season." Talking about all the animals. "What You give them, they gather in." Verse 28, "You open Your hand, they are filled with good. You hide Your face, they are troubled. You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth."

The Holy Spirit is God, so therefore He's not only active in doing the work of creation, but He's doing the work of preservation, right? He does the work of providence. Providence is God seeing that all things serve His purpose. And there are lots of examples. You can look at these in your own time, but Acts 13:2 — we read just recently on a Sunday morning where the church was gathered at Antioch in Syria and the Holy Spirit says, "I want you to send Paul and Silas to go out on the mission field, right? To go proclaim the gospel of Christ." Christ's message is delivered by men anointed by the Holy Spirit. And God through His Holy Spirit is directing providentially all of our lives.

Inspiration — we read 2 Peter 1:21 just a second ago, that holy men of old were moved by the Holy Spirit and they spoke — the prophets did. Revelation — the Bible tells us that no one knows the things of God but the Spirit of God, right? Just as no one knows the things of man but the spirit of man — well, the Holy Spirit knows God perfectly, right? He is the organ of all internal revelation to man, as Christ is the external revelation of God. The Holy Spirit is the one who applies the work of Christ to our hearts to show us who God is.

Illumination — what did Jesus say in John 16? "I'm going to send you another one, a Comforter, and He's going to lead and guide you into all truth, right? He's going to take the things of Me and apply them to you."

He does the work of prophecy — Acts 1:16 tells us that. He does the work of casting out demons — Matthew 12, Jesus says that he can't cast out demons except by the Spirit of God. He does the work of regeneration, which means the converting of a soul — this is 100% due to the Holy Spirit. Remember John 3 with Nicodemus? He says, "You must be born again. You must be born of the Spirit of God." Titus 3:5 — let me read that to you. It's a beautiful one.

Titus 3:4-5 says, "But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." It takes the Holy Spirit to quicken us, right? The Holy Spirit to wash us, to regenerate the human soul.

The work of sanctification is done by the Spirit. The work of mortification — you say, well, what's mortification? That's part of sanctification. It's putting to death the deeds of the flesh. And we see that in Romans chapter 8. Let me read that to you.

Romans chapter 8, verse 13. "Do you think you can put to death the deeds of your flesh by yourself? Do you think you can break your own addictions? Do you think you can overcome drugs, overcome pornography, overcome lying, overcome stealing, tame your tongue? Can you do that? Can you overcome your anger and your flesh?" Not according to the word of God. Romans 8:13 says, "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." The Holy Spirit empowers us, right? To walk a godly life.

Intercession is also found, of course, in Romans chapter 8 — that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. And we find this in verses 26 through 27. "Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weakness." You ever weak? Yeah. "For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. Not only will we be weak — we don't even know where to begin in our prayers sometimes. But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Wonderful that we have an intercessor in the Holy Spirit who's interceding for us exactly according to the will of God. Why? It's the work of God, because He is God.

We also see resurrection. There's not a single body that will be resurrected apart from the Spirit of Christ — by the Holy Spirit.

We also see judgment. I do have one correction there. Under judgment, you'll see John — it should be 16:8. I typed that up early this morning; I got my numbers crossed. John 16:8 — this is that the Spirit is going to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, right? It's what He does. Judgment is part of the work of the Holy Spirit. So all these can equally be said of God the Father, and all these can equally be said of God the Son, but these verses are particularly in reference to the Holy Spirit doing these works of God, right? Who can do the works of God but God Himself?

The application is this. Is a mere force able to do any of these works? What if you have a really big nuclear reactor — that's pretty powerful. Can it do any of these? Can it create? Can it recreate? Can it regenerate? Can it change a soul? Can it sanctify you? Can it put to death the deeds of the flesh? Can it convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment? No — just a mere force can't do that. Can a mere person just do that? But a divine person can, right? Only a divine person can do the very works of God.

Bible point number six. Ascribed to the Holy Spirit are the attributes of God. Just as all the works of God belong to the Holy Spirit, so do all the attributes of God. When we did the attributes of God, we spent fifteen weeks on that, and one of them was the aseity of God — His life in and of Himself. We see in Romans 8:2 that the Holy Spirit is shown to be the principle of life.

We talked about God being true and trustworthy, right? Well, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth in John 16:13. Romans 5:5 says that it's the Spirit who sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God — in other words, brings the love of God, the love of Christ Jesus into our hearts. He is marked by love. He's marked by holiness — that's why He's called the Holy Spirit, right? And we know that God is holy. He's eternal — we read that last week, how He's the eternal Spirit in Hebrews 9.

He's marked by being omnipresent. Let me read to you from Psalm 139. I know many of you know this passage and love it. It brings so much comfort to us. Psalm 139, verse 7. "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in hell" — or the grave, or the earth — "behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me and Your right hand shall hold me."

That's because the Holy Spirit is omnipresent. He's everywhere you are, right? He's not only omnipresent, but He's omniscient. I want to read to you from Isaiah 11, verse 2. This is speaking of the Messiah who would be anointed with the Holy Spirit. "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." Those are all descriptions of omniscience, showing that the Holy Spirit knows all things. Why? Because He's God.

We also see omnipotence. Zechariah — "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord." I want to read to you from Luke chapter 1. This is, of course, concerning the nativity. Luke chapter 1, verse 35. "Then the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you.'" Mary was saying, "How can this be? I've never known a man." "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Highest will overshadow you." You see the association — "The Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you."

The Spirit is all-powerful — the power of the Most High God — because He is divine. He has all the attributes of God. The application is this — can you rely on the Spirit's attributes? If the Holy Spirit indwells you and He is omniscient, don't you know that He's the one who can guide you? No matter what the circumstances or how murky it may seem to you, cannot you say, "Oh, Holy Spirit, guide me? Oh, Holy Spirit, lead me?" If the Holy Spirit lives inside you, and He is all-powerful, the power of the Most High, cannot He give you the ability to overcome temptation, to overcome sin, to walk a holy life as He is holy? Yes, we can totally rely on the Holy Spirit as being divine, and all the attributes of God are with Him, and He indwells us — which is amazing. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Bible point number seven. The Holy Spirit receives honor — that's the first blank — only due to God. The Holy Spirit is the proper object of our worship. Worship is the second blank.

We sometimes sing the doxology — "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, all ye heavenly host. Praise Father, praise Son, and praise Holy Ghost." All three are worthy of our worship, right? Are you ever to worship an angel? No — we see that in the book of Revelation. "Don't worship me, John" — is he silly? He was in awe of the revelation. "Worship God," right? Are we ever to worship a creature? No — that violates the very first commandment: "You shall have no other gods before Me," right? But we can worship the Holy Spirit because He is not a creature and He's not an angel. He is God, right?

We are to look to Him and depend on Him for all spiritual good. We are to revere Him and obey — that's the third blank — obey Him as our divine teacher and sanctifier. Christ says, "I'm going to send you another Advocate and He's going to lead and guide you into all truth." Can you say, "No, I don't want You to lead me. I don't want Your guidance. I don't want to obey Your promptings. I don't want to obey the revelation that You show me through the word of God"? Can you do that? No, right? He is to be trusted in and He is to be obeyed.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17. "Do you not know that you are the temple of God?" When they would go in the Old Testament and in the New Testament in the days of Jesus to the temple — the people, when they would go appear before the temple to bring sacrifices, to hear the prayers that the priest would offer — what was their primary thing that they were going to the temple for? It's to worship, right? To ascribe worth to God. And here he's saying you are the temple.

In the Old Testament and in the time of Jesus in the New Testament, the temple was known as being the dwelling place of God, right? They went there not because of the building — even though it was magnificent and beautiful. That wasn't why they were there. They were there because that was the closest they could get to the presence of God and they wanted to honor God. They wanted to revere God. They wanted to worship God. Well, look what he says here. "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?"

You're the temple of God and the Holy Spirit lives within you. Your life therefore serves to worship God, to give Him honor, to give Him praise, to live for His glory. That's the purpose of the temple, right? To glorify God. That's what they did in the tabernacle of Moses — glorify God. Your life, your body is meant to glorify God because the Holy Spirit lives within you. "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are."

In the old covenant, we can read about this in Leviticus where there were prescriptions for the priest to appear before the most holy place. And if they defiled that, if they didn't obey God's ceremonial ritual of purification beforehand, they were in danger of being smitten by God, right? We are the temple of God. It's a very stern warning, simply saying — take it seriously. Live your life for Him because you are indwelt by God Himself, the Holy Spirit. Flip over to the back.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20. "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" Your body, your life is not to serve your own end. It's not to say, you know, I want to acquire wealth and have happy days the rest of my life. Those are all good things — we can enjoy those things, right? As long as our main goal and our main purpose is glorifying God, right? Exalting Christ. Verse 20, "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." He owns you. And your body is His temple — the indwelling, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

Flip back over to the front. The application for number seven. Does the Spirit's indwelling change — that's the blank — change your walk? The Holy Spirit indwells you and your walk is going to be changed. You're not going to be comfortable walking the way you used to walk. We used to walk in darkness, right? We used to walk according to — as Ephesians says — according to the world and according to the flesh and according to the devil. The Holy Spirit will not give you peace in doing that as a Christian, right? You're carrying the precious Holy Spirit.

Bible point number eight. The Holy Spirit is associated with God on equal — that's the first blank — equal footing with the divine persons of the Father and the Son in the Scriptures. So the three blanks are equal, Father, and the Son. In other words, in the Scriptures, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are presented on equal footing, okay?

We see this equality implicitly described throughout the Scriptures. We just looked at various ways where the Holy Spirit is shown to be divine through His attributes, through Old Testament quotes of Yahweh being reattributed to the Holy Spirit speaking them, right? So they're presented as equals because they're equal persons — they're all three God. No one's a greater God or less than God. They can't be God apart from one another.

We see this equality of the divine persons explicitly declared in the apostolic teachings, benedictions, and in the formula of baptism. Baptism is the fourth blank. So even though it's all throughout Scripture implicitly, we also see it explicitly stated. One of these places that we see is in Romans chapter 8, verses 10 through 11. "And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin. But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead" — speaking of the Father — "dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

That's a lot to unpack there. But we see all three members of the Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — all involved in our salvation, all involved in our resurrection. It's explicitly taught there that you can't say, "Well, no, that's just God acting in different roles." Not at all. We see Christ in you, we see the Spirit in you, we see that He who raised Christ from the dead will also give you life through the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. We see all three persons working in unison to accomplish His work. Flip over to the back.

In 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 1 through 2 — this is the opening of his letter — Peter again makes this explicit equality of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. He says, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied." And we see all three persons on equal footing described in the apostolic teaching.

2 Corinthians 13:14 is an example of an apostolic benediction. A benediction was a way that they closed a letter or would even close a church service. You may have been in churches before where a benediction is given — perhaps Jude: "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior who alone is wise, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forever, amen." It's a way of taking the words of Scripture and blessing the congregation.

Paul does this in 2 Corinthians 13:14. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." So again, we see the Holy Spirit presented on equal ground, equal footing, equal status with God the Father and God the Son. We see Paul doing this in Romans 15:30. This is near the end of Romans. He says, "Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me." He's begging them for their prayers by the Holy Spirit, by Christ, to God. Again, he's giving them all equal standing here in the apostolic teaching.

Then we have the words of Christ Himself when it comes to the ordinance of baptism and His command for us to make disciples of all men. And He puts the Holy Spirit and the Father on equal footing with Himself here. It's kind of hard for us to wrap our minds around that, but here we have the teaching of the second person of the Trinity. And He says, "And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth'" — given by His Father, because He perfectly obeyed the Father as the God-man. So God has rewarded Him and seated Him at His right hand. "'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'"

This Trinitarian baptismal declaration puts the Holy Spirit on equal footing with God the Father and God the Son. It is heresy to say that the Holy Spirit is not divine. We have the apostolic word, we have the benediction, we also have the baptismal formula from Christ's own lips. Flip back over to the front.

The application is this. Do you have the Spirit of Christ? Do you have the Spirit of Christ? Let me read to you Romans 8, verse 9. "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His."

You can't have the Spirit apart from having Christ, right? You can't have fellowship with the Father apart from having fellowship with the Son. The Holy Spirit is not an entity that can be bought. You see that in Acts, right? Remember Simon Magus wanting to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. Can't do that. The Holy Spirit is received — He's given.

And He's given the same way that we receive Christ, whom the Spirit is the Spirit of — simply by faith. "Whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." When you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit comes to live within you, and He mediates forever the promise of heaven — of both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit living within you. So when I say, do you have the Spirit of Christ? It's contingent on — are you converted, right? So trust Christ for your salvation. And it's only then that you receive the promise that you'll be sealed until that glorious day when God makes all things new.